This module makes it easy to visualise Perl data structures. Data structures can grow quite large and it can be hard to understand the quite how the structure fits together.

Data::Dumper can help by representing the structure as a text heirarchy, but GraphViz::Data::Grapher goes a step further and visualises the structure by drawing a graph which represents the data structure.

Arrays are represented by records. Scalars are represented by themselves. Array references are represented by a '@' symbol, which is linked to the array. Hash references are represented by a '%' symbol, which is linked to an array of keys, which each link to their value. Object references are represented by 'Object', which then links to the type of the object. Undef is represented by 'undef'.

The data structure can be visualised in a number of different graphical formats. Methods include as_ps, as_hpgl, as_pcl, as_mif, as_pic, as_gd, as_gd2, as_gif, as_jpeg, as_png, as_wbmp, as_ismap, as_imap, as_vrml, as_vtx, as_mp, as_fig, as_svg. See the GraphViz documentation for more information. The two most common methods are: